Electronic Health Records Case Study

In recent years, electronic health records have become a forefront to quality health care. However, prior to this time medical records were stored in paper charts. Furthermore, even with electronic health records, much patient information is still printed and transmitted along the continuum of care. This continues to allow vulnerability in access to protected patient information and potential for data breaches. Breaches can occur due to human error, improper disposal, hacking of information, and numerous other reasons. One breach occurred due to both human error and improper disposal in a regional hospital located in Pennsylvania. Regional Center, a physician-owned and managed diagnostic facility announced that on December 19, 2015, Radiology

The information released dated from 2005-2012 and may have contained patient names, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, dates of birth, health insurance numbers, and other medical status and assessment information as well as financial information gathered in the patient medical and financial records. As soon as Radiology Regional Center learned of the incident, the hospital made every effort to retrieve the records, including a foot search of the surrounding area by more than a dozen of its employees and physicians. Furthermore, a cautionary second search of the area was conducted by foot on December 21, 2015 and a third was conducted on December 22, 2015. Due to the searches, Radiology Regional Center believed all records breached had been located and

CMHP reported that patient records were found in a dumpster on November 27, 2015. CMHP determined one of its merchants had disposed of lab records by placing them in the dumpster on November 25, 2015. Patients’ names, physicians’ names, accession numbers, types of study, guarantor information, health insurance information, diagnoses, and other clinical information may have been exposed (Snell, 2016). Moreover, Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers could have been included in some cases. It is reported that 113,528 individuals were impacted. A statement issued by CMHP states, “To help prevent this from happening in the future, we have taken steps to re-inventory all document storage locations, significantly reduced or eliminated retention of paper documents when the information is electronically available, and re-educated our facilities management contractors on the requirements for physical storage relocation projects,” (Snell,